Is She the Reason?
by randumb
Summary: Angela and Chase have been childhood friends, but after moving to Waffle Island together, Chase marries Maya. Angela can't stand it. Is it just that Maya isn't good enough for him or does seeing him with other girls arouse feelings deep inside her heart?
1. Miserable at Best

A/N: I know this is a lot longer than most stories (or at least chapters) I usually do, but most of it is flash back and I felt the need to get that all in one chapter. When you see this: ~*~*~*~*~*~ it's Angela remembering, so not all the details are there, just what she remembers of the time. Hope you enjoy. May or may not update, depends if it gets enough reviews. Very loosley based on the song Is she the Reason by Destiny's Child. I will try to name each chapter (if there are anymore) after a song because everybody can relate to songs at a certain level. Miserable at Best is by Mayday Parade in case you want to look it up.

I don't own these characters or the songs Is She the Reason and Miserable at Best.

* * *

It happened fast. Real fast. First Candace and Julius, Owen and Kathy, then Luna and Gill, all in one season. "Don't worry, Angela. You'll find your soul mate soon enough. Despite how much I pick on you, you're a really cool person!" Luna had said after her and Gill's wedding day. I was there to congratulate them, but Luna could see through my fake smile.

It's not that I couldn't get a guy, because believe it or not, I was dainty and had boys drooling all over me before I moved to this island. It's just that the first few years I was here, I was working on expanding my farm. Growing tons of bulk and muscle, I grew out of that dainty category. I was still attractive with my largish brown puppy dog eyes and cute little cowlick, but my main problem was that I always let people down when they asked to hang out, busy milking cows or harvesting crops. The first few seasons people asked me to the bar or go to a Summer Festival with them, but I was always too busy. And now I was being punished for that decision.

After a while all those invitations halted with Chase and Luna being the only ones asking me to go anywhere. Luna and I became friends while I worked part-time there trying to earn some more money for another sheep. She was actually a really nice person inside, after you got on her good side. Once I earned enough money and bought Caroline (that's the sheep's name), we bonded on how cute the wooly little lamb was. She visited to collect some yarn regularly and I was more than happy to exchange the wool for money and a little of Luna's spare time.

Although Luna was a good friend, Chase was no doubt my best. We knew each other before we both came to Waffle Island, coming here together. We were best friends in high school and after we graduated we wanted to leave far away from North Carolina, where we both grew up in an orphanage. We were used to living together, so when he found a tiny little house on a remote island, well, I couldn't say no. I still remember the day he asked me to come with him.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"I've figured this all out, Angela. It's perfect! There's this small little island off the coast of Australia and I'll get to be a chef at this place called the Sundae Inn, you'll get to go into the agriculture business and own a farm, it's far away from this town, tons of people our age…"

"Whoa slow down, tiger. I'm surprised you managed to get that all out in one breath," I said, laughing. Laughing because I was happy. Because I believed him when he said that everything would be perfect. But he looked like he was hiding something from me. "What's the catch?" I asked him, a skeptical look drawn upon my face.

"Um… we'll have to move into the same apartment together," he said nervously.

"That's it? Chase, I would stay in the same apartment with you for the rest of my life if I had to. It's not an issue for me," I said, running up and hugging him. "You are a magic man," I said into his ear.

And he's still one today.

"When do we leave?" I asked him, pulling away from the embrace.

"There's a boat leaving tomorrow," he responded.

"Perfect, the sooner, the better," I said, beaming a wide, toothy smile.

"There's another catch though."

"Oh no, this can't be good."

"There's only one ticket. And I already bought it. You should go. I need to say goodbye to everyone anyways," he said quickly, not giving me a choice of if I wanted to or not.

"Who do you have to say goodbye to? I don't want to leave without you, Chase."

"Will, Andy, David, Hal," he said, naming off some recognizable names. "You'll be fine, Angie. It's not an island full of murderers. Besides, it's a nonrefundable ticket," he said, pulling the ticket from his pocket and waving it in the air.

"Okay, I'll go. When are you going to get there?"

"There's another boat leaving the first of Fall. I'll be on it."

"Two months in an apartment by myself? How am I supposed to live without you?" I said, falling to my knees and being purposely way too overdramatic.

"Get up. You'll get your pants dirty," he said, smiling. "I'm sure you'll get along just fine. And when have I ever been wrong?"

So, the next day, I left. There was this weird captain named Pascal who asked too many questions for his own good. Shaking nervous at starting out alone, when a storm came, I'm ashamed to say, I passed out. When I woke up, there was a weird smell of waffles in the air. Then I remembered where I was. Yeah, Waffle Town. It seemed like some kind of hotel with many rooms. I went downstairs to be greeted by three people. They told me their names were Yolanda, Colleen, and Jake. When they told me I was at the Sundae Inn, my face lit up in recognition. I knew I'd heard it before… Oh! That's where Chase got his job. I smiled thinking about him. The three people must have thought I looked crazy, but Chase always made me smile even when he wasn't around.

Then this weird guy with gray hair sticking up everywhere walked in thinking he owned the place. When he told me he was the mayor I blushed at what I just thought. Technically, he _did_ own the place. He owned the whole freaking island! He told me to follow him and I was so flabbergasted, that I did. He led me to this one place called Soufflé Farm. It was old, ratty, and worst of all, it wasn't mine. The mayor ditched me there and I had to follow this grouchy guy, Craig's orders. Not like he taught me anything I didn't already know. Agriculture was always my best subject and I made tons of gardens outside the orphanage. The only helpful thing he did was made me deliver some crops to people in town. I got to meet some of them, even though the ones I did meet were creeps. There was this one guy named Jin, who I never would've guessed was a guy if Anissa, Craig's daughter, wouldn't have been flirting with him.

The mayor came to check on me a few days later. He told me they had a house for me. I looked at him questioningly, knowing I was supposed to share an apartment with Chase. Then he dropped the bomb that it was _free_. Boy, that got me going. I was so ecstatic, thinking that my excellent farming skills got us a bigger place to stay at, until I asked the mayor and he said that Jake, Chase's employer, was paying for a separate house to be built specially for Chase. Not living with Chase? My heart made a hollow sound in my heart. Maybe everything wouldn't be perfect after all…

I called Chase as soon as I got this news. He picked up on the third ring.

"Chase?" I asked.

"Is something wrong, Angela?" he asked. Maybe he could hear the hollow _bump-bump of my heart._

"No, I just wanted to tell you that we got our own houses. Mine is going to be right next to the farm and yours is going to be by this little lake. It's cozy enough, I guess."

"And how are we going to afford these houses?"

"That's the thing," I said, "They're giving them to us for free." The hollowness in my heart seemed to slowly creep it's way too my stomach when he seemed much more enthusiastic than I was. What I would give for one of Chase's chocolate pies right about now…

"That's awesome!" he shouted.

"Yeah, I guess."

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Oh, it's nothing."

"Okay, well, I can't wait to get there and see our new homes."

"I bet."

"Well, I gotta go."

"Okay, bye."

"Bye, Angela," and he hung up. I clicked my cell phone shut, empty-hearted.

For the next two seasons I worked my butt off on the farm, spending a little time at the tailor shop trying to earn money. Luna became one of the only people I talked to.

Then the day when Chase arrived came. I circled the date on my calendar forty-three times, one for every day I was feeling lonely. He called sometimes, but he was busy doing who knows what and had to leave soon after. I waited for him down by the dock and when he came off the boat, I ran up and wrapped my arms around him as tight as I could.

"God, I missed you like crazy," I murmured into his peach-colored hair.

"I know what you mean," he said, smiling. Then he pulled back to take a good look at me. "Putting on some muscle, I see. Always knew you would be perfect at whatever you set your mind to." I blushed at the compliment then pulled him back into another gigantic hug.

"So where is this house of mine? I have a few bags of luggage to put down before you can give me the grand tour," he said.

I smiled sheepishly and led him to his house, a house I had stopped and stared at many times on my way to the Tailor Shop. Once inside, I allowed him to set his bags down, then told him that I actually had no idea where anything was besides the two houses and a couple necessary shops.

"Angie? I'm ashamed of you. You're a sociable person, you should've explored more!"

"Sorry. I was busy with farm work and trying to earn extra money working part-time. But as I recall, you were the one who stayed behind to say goodbye to everyone."

"I was kidding. Don't worry, nobody blames you. I guess we'll both have to get the grand tour from somebody else. But who?"

I thought it would be a good idea for him to be led around by his employer, so I showed him where the Sundae Inn was located.

"Wow, my first job," he said, awe filling the brim of his eyes. We went in the door only to find a quirky looking blonde girl with braids that defied the laws of gravity.

"Hello there! Are you visiting Waffle Island? I'm Maya and I'm the waitress here," she said rather mechanically. "What's your name?" she asked, but she wasn't looking at me. She only had eyes for Chase.

"I'm Chase," he said, figuring I knew her.

"And I'm Angela. I actually moved here about two seasons ago, but this is Chase's very first day."

"Oh! So you're the girl who owns the farm? Are you guys married? The closeness is so mutual!" she said, a dream-like state taking over her.

I quickly backed away, not wanting to ruin his chances with her. Despite her quirkiness, she was cute, in a slutty kind of way.

"Umm, no, we're not married. We're actually best friends. We were supposed to move into an apartment together, but then that Hamilton guy offered me a free house, I found out Jake would pay for Chase's lodging, and it all just kind of fell into place," I said. I recognized a surprised look on Chase's face, probably still in shock from the question about us being married. Then again, maybe he was captivated by Maya's good, trampish looks.

"Oh yeah, my dad always pays for all his employees' houses. Chase is actually the only employee right now not a part of our family, so it doesn't matter too much. The house also comes fully furnished. I bet Luke and Dale are furnishing it right this very moment." Jake, her dad? Wow, that was a real shocker.

"Wow, you hear that, Chase? It comes fully furnished. How cool!" I said, a little too enthusiastically for my own good.

"Um… yeah, cool," he said, then turned to Maya. "Would you mind giving us a tour? Angela actually hasn't been out much or else I would force her to give it to me, but she hardly knows anybody," he said, playfully punching me in the arm. I used to cower away everytime he did that, but after earning the extra layer of bulk, I hardly felt it. He seemed surprised about me not doing anything, but I think he got over it. That wasn't the only thing that made me his friend. Or at least, I hoped not.

"Sure thing, hon," she said grabbing her jacket and running out the door to the crisp, Autumn air. First she led us up to the Maple Lake District, where, as she predicted, two men were carrying a double bed into Chase's new house. It sounded weird in my head, not Chase and Angie's house, but Chase's house.

"Hey there, Luke!" she called, waving her hands rapidly in the air to the young man with a bandana wrapped around his blue hair.

"Hey, Maya. What's up?" he called, a bead of sweat on his forehead from carrying the bed inside.

"The new tenant arrived here today. His name's Chase. And this is Angela. She owns the farm in the Caramel River District. She doesn't seem to know her way around here yet, so I'm giving them both a tour."

"Cool! If you own a farm, you'll need an axe. Here, you can have my old one" he said in a way too over enthusiastic tone. If it were a few pitches higher I would probably mistake it for a Barbie doll's. Then he pulled something from a rucksack on his back and gave it to me. I smiled because it was the polite thing to do, but the axe looked a little too sharp to be new.

The tour in actuality was pretty boring, so I don't remember most of it. I remember a couple times Maya would kind of put the moves on Chase and I would feel the blood boil inside me, but other than that, I don't even remember most of the people's names. I know in the Ganache Mine District there was this guy with red hair and great abs. He even gave me his hammer then said something about me being too skinny. I made it my personal goal to bulk up even more with the old-yet-new axe and the hammer I was given.

At the end of the day, Maya led Chase up to his house, said goodbye to him, not me, then left.

"These people seem nice," he said as soon as she was gone.

"Yeah, they do. Seem to like gift giving around here."

"You want to come inside?" he asked. I really wish I could've said yes, but I had to get back.

"Nah, I have to get back and feed my animals. They'll be cranky in the morning if I don't."

"Do you want me to walk you back. I think I remember the places Maya was showing us better then you do. You seemed half asleep."

"Yeah, well, I was excited last night that you were coming. But I know the way by heart. I could walk it in my sleep," I said, already starting off in the opposite direction.

"Okay, g'night!" he called into the darkness.

I don't know if my voice carried all the way back to him, but I said goodnight back to him.

The weeks went by even quicker while Chase was around. He was working most of the time, but when he got out for his break, he would come and visit me at the farm and we would laugh and have a good time. He would bring food he made himself and teach me how to cook it, and I would have him help me with simple farm work like collecting eggs, letting him keep half if he did so. Then he started getting out later and later, until I realized that he started hanging out with Maya before he came to visit me. And then when he visited me, all he ever talked about was her. They started going out about half a season after that.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The next season had a wedding scheduled every weekend. First Calvin and Phoebe, then Toby and Renee, Jin and Anissa, and lastly Luke and Selena, with Chase and Maya's wedding coming up on the first Saturday of Autumn. Even though Chase told me he planned on proposing ahead of time, the date still threw me off guard and made my heart start pounding heavier. The only one I attended was the last one.

It's funny. If you would've asked me to choose a girl for Chase to be with for the rest of his life, it wouldn't have been Maya. He spent most of his life learning to cook the best he could. Maya, on the other hand, just gets away on her parents' money and has possibly _the_ worst cooking ability of all the people in the human race. I bet she couldn't make a sandwich without making somebody hurl. I always thought Chase would go with somebody more determined and hard working. Somebody who enjoys the satisfaction of a job well done. Somebody a little like me.

But we're just friends. He has a fiancee now to prove of that. Somebody he can love with his whole heart, somebody fragile and delicate, somebody the opposite of his childhood friend, Angela, who spent the past few years working on a dirty, smelly farm, cleaning cow poop. I can't say I blame him. I took up Owen's challenge and became a rather able-bodied girl. Now the daintiness I took on before I moved to Waffle Island cannot be found in me and all I've got to show for it is an inheritance for children I'll never have.

During the wedding, though I'll never admit it, there were tears in my eyes. Maya will be able to take care of him the way i've always wanted to take care of somebody. He deserves better than a girl with crap all over her shoes.

As I watched them kiss and the marriage become final, the tears in my eyes overflowed. Not just one, but four, one for all the years I regret. I quickly wiped them away before Yolanda, who was sitting next to me, could see them. Then again, maybe I was being paranoid. All eyes were on the newly weds and pathetic me wasn't going to change that. I wouldn't do anything but bring myself down.

After awhile, I stood up and walked outside with everybody else while the church bells rang and Chase and Maya waved to everybody. As he turned toward me, he made a small little grimace at my red, blotchy face; but I put on a smile and waved back.

I left before anybody else at the wedding had a chance to. I'm sure Gill, who was wandering around the church, had no idea what to make of the sobbing noise coming from deep inside my throat, but I didn't care. I went back to the farm for the rest of the day. Chase didn't show up like he normally did, which didn't surprise me, but made me sob harder. You would think it'd be hard to milk a cow while crying. It's not.


	2. I'm Only Me When I'm With You

A/N: Same rules apply in the sense of ~*~*~*~*~*~ being flash-back time. Take note that it is Chase's POV this week. I think I'm going to switch it up every week so you can know what both sides are thinking. Weird and totally unneccessary? Maybe, but that's just how it's gonna be.

Disclaimer: All I own is the chain of events. No characters and no songs belong to me, no matter how much I wish they did.

* * *

Before the wedding was even over, Angela, the one person at the wedding there for _me_ and not Maya, left. Her usually tan face was red and blotchy when I waved to her outside the church, but I didn't say anything to her about it because I knew she would never admit she had been crying. Ever. I'd never seen her that sad. Just the sight of it made my inner intestines feel queasy and made me want to run over to her and hug her.

But if Maya even knew I was thinking that, she would have my head chopped off. Kind of like that Anne Boleyn who was married to King Henry the 8th and she was accused of adultery for being too friendly. Except I'm Anne Boleyn, of course. When do I not get the role of a female?

~*~*~*~*~*~

I looked up to the sound of a girl giggling. Not just any girl. Angela. "What's so funny?" I asked the small figure in front of me. She was practically doubling over in laughter now, looking half the size of her already small figure.

"Don't tell me you haven't heard!" she said in between uncontrollable fits of hilarity. I hadn't heard. "While you were sick yesterday, the orphanage decided to have a play to lift everybody's spirits. We just had too many people sad all the time. So anyway, we wanted to do the play on Little Women, since that's one of the most checked out books from the library, and we had auditions. Since you weren't there, they gave you the remaining part in the play," she couldn't continue. I knew what was coming anyways. I was the girl. Again.

"Ugh, why does this always happen to me?" I asked. I wasn't sure if it was to Angela or not. Last time they had a play, The Diary Of Anne Frank, I was cast as Mrs. Van Daan. Weird name, I think it was Dutch…?

"Do you want me to answer that truthfully or not?" she asked. No. Of course, I knew the real reason. Every time I looked in a mirror, I knew the real reason. Plain and simple, I looked like a girl. I always had to put my messy, peach-colored hair back in bobby pins to keep it out of my way. Purple, wide eyes didn't help the equation either.

"No, just come up with something creative this time," I said. "One you haven't used before."

"Okay… ooh I got a good one! Chase, the reason you always get cast for the female role is you have such good acting abilities, that they have to cast you as a girl in order to make sure you reach your full potential in these mainly female-based plays. Wait did that make any sense?" The answer: not really. But it made me feel better at the very least that I had the excuse that I was sick and got cast for the only role left.

"No, but thanks for trying. So what part am I in for?" Did I even want to hear the answer?

"You got a character named Mrs. Kirke. Never read the book, so can't tell you much about her. I think she's supposed to have two kids, though. Maggie and Emma, you know those two girls always running around, are in that role."

"Oh, yeah, just perfect," I mumbled incoherently.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing," I said in a sing-song voice.

"Oh come on! Tell me what you said!" she demanded.

"I didn't say anything," I said back.

"Yeah, you did."

"No, I didn't."

~*~*~*~*~*~

I was brought back to the present by a very disturbed Gill. What he said, I didn't know.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that," I said, gritting my teeth. Gill hates my guts and thinks me a "lower life-form" just because I think cooking is just as important as reading.

"I said, 'What did you do to Angela,' you dimwit." See there he goes, calling me names in the first sentence he says to me. Well, the first sentence I hear him say to me.

"I didn't do anything to her!" I exclaimed. If he ever thought I would hurt her, he has serious issues. Everybody in this town knows that. Both that Gill has issues and that I would never intentionally hurt Angela.

"Well she ran out of here bawling her eyes out. Figured _you_ had something to do with it." See, he even spits out the word you when talking about me.

"I don't even know what happened. Don't ask me. Did you try asking her?" I asked. Seemed an obvious enough solution.

"No, what was I supposed to do? Go up to her, say 'Hey, I see your crying. Mind telling me why?' That wouldn't work. Angela and I aren't exactly the best of friends, either," he said. Boy, was he moody.

"Whatever. Did you see which way she was going, at least?"

"Yeah, you'd be a moron not to know she was heading towards her farm," he said, name-calling once again. I had little patience for it. I kept my cool just long enough to turn around and avoid punching him in the face.

I saw Maya heading towards my- I mean _our_- house, her hands filled with stuff. I ran up to her and said, "Let me take some of that stuff for you."

"What took you so long?" she asked in an annoyed tone. What was with _that_?

"You know, I was talking to Gill. You saw me didn't you?" I knew she did. She was right beside me until he started talking about Angela.

"Of course I saw you! I just didn't think it would take you that long to talk to somebody. In that amount time, I was able to go to the Sundae Inn, grab all my stuff, and walk almost all the way back. Were you talking about Angela the whole time?" Did the wedding make her voice sound high and snooty or had it always been that way? I didn't bother to answer the question.

We arrived at the house and I opened the door for her, put her stuff in a pile on the double bed I had just bought, then watched as she put all the stuff in the wrong places. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. That shelf is for books only. You can't put your Nintendo DS there!" I couldn't help exclaiming. My neat freak-ness settled in and I grabbed it and put it on the appropriate desk.

"Jeez, Chase. You don't have to be so picky all the time. We both have to live here now, try sharing the space." Why, oh, why had I never heard this side of her before?

"Okay, fine, have it your way. You arrange your stuff how you want. I'm going to go see if Angela is okay," I said, earning a scowl from Maya. Was it just me, or did they not like each other? Her face changed quickly, though. I didn't know what it was, something that could only be described as… lust.

Suddenly she was all up over me, untying my apron from around my neck. "Oh, don't worry about her. She can wait until tomorrow. Tonight's our wedding night. Do you know what happens on wedding nights?" she asked. Of course I did. "How about we start now?" she asked, starting to unbutton my shirt and give me little kisses along my chest. The desire was still in her eyes as I pushed her off of me and buttoned my shirt back up.

"Maya, now is not the time. How about we just… postpone it?" I asked while tying the apron back around my neck.

"How can you postpone your _wedding night_?!" she screamed. "And for some stupid little friend of yours? Come on Chase, it'll be fun."

"Maya, I am physically incapable of having fun while I know that my best friend is sad, crying in fact. Come on, you have to have _some _friends." Whoops, totally not the right thing to say. I knew Maya was going to explode before it even happened.

"Are you trying to suggest that I have no _friends_?! I have more friends then you'll ever have, mister!" Now was my time to escape.

"Okay, Maya, if you say so. I'll just let you… cool off for a while and I'm going to leave…" and with that, I ran all the way to Moonbeam Ranch, paying little to no attention to the screaming hissy fit behind me.

When I reached the Caramel River District, I saw Angela half-asleep in her field, still petting her cow, Daphne. Her tear-struck face made that same intestine-hurting pain in my side. "Do you always sleep in the middle of your field?" I asked her, poking at her side, which caused her to spaz out.

Her eyes quickly fluttered open and looked directly into mine. "No… it's just a beautiful night. With the stars shining brightly above, how could you not?"

"Nice try," I said, repeating the same thing I always say when I suspect she's coming up with an excuse. "Now do you want to tell me what's wrong?" Even though it was just an excuse, the night really was beautiful. The grass looked soft enough as I lay down beside her, scaring Daphne away by my sudden movement.

"Oh, it's really nothing," she said. Of course, I could tell it wasn't nothing, but she really seemed like she didn't want to talk about it.

Hoping to break the ice, though it wasn't very successful, I told her a secret I hadn't ever told her before. "Do you want to know a secret?"

"Do I? You decide for me," she said.

"Sure, you do," I responded. As much as I was reluctant to say it, if it made Angela feel better, I would try anything.

"Okay, then what is it?" she asked while sitting up and pulling her knees into her chest.

"Before we moved here, I had the largest crush on you. That's why I asked you to move here with me. I couldn't think of the prospect of not having you here with me. I know it was kind of a far off dream, but… I don't know," I admitted looking up at the stars to avoid her eyes. I could've taken it if she'd laughed, I could've taken it if she made fun of me, but the silence was much worse. Well not exactly quiet because of the crickets chirping, but you get the point. "So, what do you think?"

It took her the longest amount of time to respond, her response being, "I don't think it was that much of a far off dream." I raised an eyebrow at the moon, too afraid to look at her face. Maybe the moonlight would act as a reflector and bounce back my expression to her. Craziness must have run in my family. Not like I'd know, but...

"Okay, now you owe me. What's wrong?" I asked again. She sighed as she lay back down on the grass, Caroline, her sheep, baaing loudly next to her.

"What I really want most in the world, is to open my eyes every morning to the person I love. After a little while, I want to give some of that love to a baby. _My_ baby. Chase, I can't get that here. There's no point in staying. Everybody here is already married," she was practically crying again. I hugged her like I wished I could've at the wedding, wishing I had bigger, more masculine arms to hold her in. I could tell she was still hiding something from me, but now was not the time for that.

"Oh come on, you know not everybody here is married, Angie." Yet, at that moment, I couldn't think of anybody that wasn't.

"Oh yeah? Like who?" she questioned.

"Umm... what about Jin?"

"Married to Anissa two weekends ago. Why would I want to marry him anyways? He creeps me out..."

"Oh I got it! Gray," I said, remembering the socially awkward guy down at Brownie Ranch.

"Oh please, Chase. Stop trying. There's no point in me staying here. I can sell the farm and go back to North Carolina... don't know what I'll do after that, but hey, it's all a learning experience, right?"

"No, not right. You can't just leave. What about your animals?" I asked. She loved them didn't she?

"I asked Renee the other day if she would buy them off me if I were to leave."

"And what did she say?" Hopefully, Renee wasn't that stupid. But then again, she did marry fishboy himself.

"She said she would."

"What about me?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper at this point.

"You'll be fine. You have Maya to take care of you," she said. Oh she'd take care of me alright.

There had to be a way to keep her here. I didn't know what I would do without her in my life. I didn't want to live without her. "What were the things you said you wanted again?" I asked, desperate this time. Maybe I could give her some of those things...

"I want to wake up to the scent and sight of the one I love and be the parent I never had," she said sadly.

"Well, I can't help you on all of those points, but if you want to wake up to the sight of a girly-looking peach haired guy in the morning this one time, I'm here for you." Maya was going to kill me.

"But what about Maya? Isn't she going to be upset?" she asked.

"She can get over it. There's plenty more stuff to do on a Friday night. She'll probably be working at the bar anyway." I didn't tell Angela that she tried to seduce me. It seemed inappropriate. "All I care about right now is that you feel better. So, are you? Feeling better, that is."

"A little…" she admitted. I squeezed her tighter into my embrace. "Okay! I feel better!" she laughed, catching on quickly to my little game.

"That's good. I'm not letting you go until morning, though. Just to make extra sure you'll feel better," I said while stifling a laugh.

And that's how I fell asleep, with one arm around her waist, the other over her shoulders, while various moos, baas, and clucks sounded behind me.

* * *

A/N: Kind of a weird chapter. Can't decide if I liked it or not. And yes, I know that the wedding wouldn't happen on a Friday night, but for the sake of the song, I changed it. I recommend reading it over again while listening to I'm Only Me When I'm With You by Taylor Swift. I took the ideas from the song and incorporated them into the story.

You know what else I recommend? Reviewing! Review, criticize, talk nonsense for all I care! Just press the little box below this and type to your hearts content.


	3. Bleeding Love

A/N: Wow, I'm getting these out a lot faster than I was expecting to. :) Thanks to all the people who reviewed. If you didn't review and just read the story, thanks to you guys too, but review this time! It'll make me feel all happy inside :) Also thanks to pEaCe-LoVe-HaRrYpOtTeR for helping me come up with the title. I still laugh everytime I look at it. As I said, I'm switching POV again and going back to Angela's.

Disclaimer: Still don't own much to this story mostly meaning songs and characters.

* * *

Caroline's baaing woke me up, only for me to open my eyes and see the bright yellow sun high in the sky. I was blinded for a moment, black and blue blotches obscuring my view for a seconds. My farmer's intuition kicked me in the butt screaming, "Why did you sleep in so late?! What about your crops?! They'll die and you'll lose money! Wake up you lazy butthead!" Yes, I am very harsh on myself. I tried to get up only to be restrained by something.

My breathing sped up as I thought of what could've happened to me. Possibly I was stuck on a twig, or maybe one of my animals was stepping on my already dirty clothes… or maybe something even worse. Then it hit me. Why was I sleeping outside? And what was restraining me from getting up? My very slow brain (I was never good in school. Real life? Even worse.) slowly caught on to what had happened last night. I now knew the restraints were two arms. Not two very strong arms, but two arms all the same. What added to my faster breathing and heart beats were the fact that they were_ Chase's_ arms.

Partly because I wanted to see if my brain was lying to me, and partly because I had nothing better to do, I turned around to come face-to-face with Chase. And I do literally mean face-to-face. We were so close, it was like… well, magic. I snuggled in closer to the familiar orange scent while trying to keep the magic between myself and this subconscious person. Magic that lasted for a whole two and a half seconds.

I watched as his eyes fluttered open and he took in his surroundings, meaning me. I backed away, knowing this wasn't his idea of a perfect morning, seeing a dirty, smelly, farmer girl first thing in the morning before he even fully wakes up. He didn't seem phased by the closeness between us, although it barely existed now, for which I cursed myself silently. Why had I moved away when there was no need to? When staying there would've made me feel even better?

He let go of me to yawn and stretch himself out on the surprisingly (for Fall) green grass. "Good morning," he said, turning back to look at me again. I wished oh so dearly he would wrap his arms around me again, pull me into his chest as I was before, and just lay there with him. Of course, he wouldn't like that. That was when the beginning of the night hit me. Chase had gotten married last night. To Maya.

I jumped up quickly to my feet saying, "Oh, good morning. I'm going to go to the bathroom…" and ran inside, practically slamming the door behind me. I couldn't believed that Chase, my best friend for my entire life, was now married to Maya. And what was worse? I had been the one to keep him from his… first night as a married man. All because I was a pathetic loser. I started crying again and went into the bathroom, slamming that door shut, too.

As I sat on the toilet, I suddenly knew why I was crying over something so small. The bloody underwear between my legs was proof I had gotten my period. It all fit. The moodiness, the sob fest, and I knew I would get cramps the next day, as was routine for my body. I couldn't believe the month had already passed so quickly. I instructed myself to stop crying and after a few moments of persuasion, I did stop. To no extent did that keep me from feeling sad, but that was to be expected, right?

I pulled my pants back up, flushed the toilet, washed my hands, and left the bathroom, hoping to get some clean underwear. But as soon as I opened the door, the smell of pancakes grabbed my attention. Chase. I had no idea where he would've gotten the honey to cook it, but didn't care. My main mission was to get into my dresser without him noticing, not sum up the ingredients he used. I cursed myself for not yet building a wall between my bedroom and the kitchen, swearing it would be the first thing I would do next time I went to the Ganache Mine District.

I was about half way there, my stealth skills obviously not as in tune as I was hoping they would be, when Chase called out, "Hey, would you mind handing me the spatula?" I looked at his wrist to make sure he wasn't kidding me and actually had a spatula in his hand. He did that often enough for me to have to check. I noticed a multicolor bracelet made from thread around his wrist when I didn't see a spatula.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Chase, have you ever heard of a friendship bracelet?" I asked the boy in front of me. We were in fourth grade.

"No... am I supposed to?" he asked. I laughed at him. I found it hard not to put the words together: friendship + bracelet = a bracelet you give your friends.

"Well, when us girls get to be really good friends, we give each other friendship bracelets. It's made out of all these little knots to show ties that can't be easily broken," I told him.

"Are you trying to give that to me? I'm not a girl! I won't wear it if it's just for girls," he whined back.

"Stop being such a baby! Boys can wear them too, you know. What's really important is the meaning behind them," I said back to him.

It took a little persuading, but I somehow managed to get him to let me tie it around his wrist. "It feels a little weird," he said.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it. You have to keep it on, though. Don't take it off for any reason."

"Why can't I?" he asked.

"Because when you do, that will mean we're not friends anymore," I responded.

"Thanks," he said. "I wish I could give you something in return." He searched his neck for a necklace and his hand for a ring to give me, but nothing turned up.

"It's okay. That's what friendship is all about. Giving."

"Really?" he asked, his eyes widening. It looked so funny on him when he did that. "I thought it was all about trust."

"Well... that too," I said. There were many more qualities beside that, but I didn't bother mentioning them.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Angela?" Chase asked, bringing me back to the present situation. "Did you hear me?"

"Yeah, I heard you," I said. So he still wore that dingy old friendship bracelet, huh? Did that mean we were still just friends? Or did it mean that those ties still were'nt broken and never would be?

I handed him the spatula and hoped to make my way discreetly to the dresser. I opened the top drawer, pulled out some clean underwear, then ran all the way to the bathroom. "Where do you think you're going?" he asked.

"Back to the bathroom," I said. He left it that. The embarrassing moment stayed in my brain the whole time I changed and put a pad in the clean underwear then washed my hands again. It followed me out the door as Chase flipped a pancake. His face was red, maybe from asking such a personal question, and maybe from the heat, but I guessed my face matched his. It was still awkward as I sat down at the table.

"Do you want any help?" I asked.

"No, I'm almost done, anyways," he responded, and sure enough, put a plate down at the table in front of me. "Oh wait, you can get the drinks," he said, juggling a jar of maple syrup, eating utensils, and his own plate of pancakes.

"I take it you'll have orange juice?" I asked him.

"You got it," he said, throwing a random smile in my direction. I poured the drinks, giving us both orange juices, and sat down in the seat next to him. I was glad the awkwardness was over, replaced by the sound of us scarfing down the food.

"Chase, this is really good," I said, my mouth full at the time. "I should have you cook me breakfast more often."

"I know, I know," he said, teasing me. "Nice try, but flattery will get you nowhere with me."

"Why would I want to flatter you?" I asked, finding no obvious motive for myself presentable. "Just telling you the truth." And then silence again. Not an awkward silence like it was before, because of the sound of two gobbling people. But the silence still froze me. Froze me because that wasn't the only sound I could hear.

There was a knock on the door after the footprints grew noticeably louder. "Coming!" I called to the mystery person, getting up and leaving Chase at the table. I opened the door to find a short, stylish, purple-haired girl standing on the steps.

"Hi!" Luna said. "I was wondering if you had any spare wool. We're running out at the Tailor Shop."

"I wasn't expecting you to come back so soon. Didn't I sell you some two weeks ago?" I asked. That was the time I usually asked her to come inside, but with Chase there… I just couldn't let Ms. Gossip Queen herself see Chase, a married man, eating breakfast here with me.

"May I come in?" she asked. Crap. There went my plan. Hopefully if Chase just stayed in the kitchen, I could get her in and out without her noticing.

"Oh, yeah. Of course," I said, moving to the side so she could enter.

My plan b was ruined when Chase yelled from across the house, "Who is it?"

"Oh, it's just Luna," I yelled back, hoping I had never told Luna that I didn't have a brother.

"Is that Chase?" she asked. Why did my plans always end up not working? "I thought I heard somebody tell me he got married last night."

"Well, you probably did hear right… but Chase came over to make breakfast," I said, figuring she could smell the delicious pancakes from here. "How about I just get you the wool, free of charge," I asked, pleading with my eyes for her not to tell anybody.

"Okay!" she said as I pulled some wool off of my shelf and gave it to her. I hoped she understood the message. She left quickly after that, not engaging in as much conversation as usual.

"What was that about?" Chase asked when I walked back into the kitchen.

"Oh, nothing. Luna comes here fairly often to get some wool," I said back. The frigid icicle I had been melted at the sound of his voice. Was that a good thing? In my case, it was bad. I was falling for an already married guy and I knew it.

He raised an eyebrow at me, but I had no intent on answering the unasked question.

Chase and I did the dishes together. It was pretty quick, only throwing a few suds (by few I mean a lot) at him, and he back at me. Smiling was a common habit when I was around him. He left right after the dishes were done. "Well, Angie, it was nice having breakfast here with you," he said.

"That was so good, Chase! I can't believe it's been this long since we've had breakfast together," I said. My PMS kicked in after that and brought my mood down while a knot in my stomach formed. He hurried out the door with a parting nod.

With Chase gone, I glanced at the clock and realized it was 3:00 already. Thinking I could water my crops after it was dark, I hurried down to the Ganache Mine District to ask Dale at the Carpentry Shop if he could build a wall between my bedroom and the rest of the house.

I walked in the door to hear Luke trying to whisper. The only reason I know this is because he was a lot quieter than he normally was, meaning normal voices for us normal people. "Hey did you hear about Chase?" he asked somebody, probably Bo. "Selena told me that he cheated on his wife already. On their first day! Can you believe that?" he asked. _Selena_? What…?

"No," Bo responded. "I can't, Luke. I mean honestly, he's crazy about Maya. Just one glance at him will tell you that much. He's obviously head over heels in love. Who would he cheat with?"

"Well, I heard it was that Angela chick." He must not have noticed I came in. Bo did.

"Umm, Luke?" he asked, pointing in my direction.

I didn't ever get to ask Dale to build that wall for me because I ran out the door and burst into tears again. How could he do this? To Maya? To me? This one time, they were angry tears. Tears of fury. I knew it was the PMS, but that didn't stop them from flowing. I ran, pumping my legs harder and harder until I got to my ranch, ringing the bell furiously to make the animals go inside, earning dumbstruck glances from the animals._ Ring, ring_! My uneven breathing didn't slow down, but I didn't care. I didn't care if I died in the middle of the night, or even if I just got up and left. Apparently, Chase didn't either. How stupid I was to believe that Chase actually cared. That he gave a crap about me. Yeah right!

As my breathing slowed, so did my anger. It slowed into it dissolved. But I was still crying. Tears of sorrow again. Bo's words replayed over and over again as I watered my crops. "_I mean honestly, he's crazy about Maya. Just one glance will tell you that much. He's obviously head over heels in love._" Again, I questioned myself why would he do this to me?, but with no anger, no passion. Why would he do this to me, when _I'm_ in love with _him_? How can I be such an idiot for not seeing this? After all, why would he marry somebody he doesn't love?

Then my mind flitted to Luna. How could _she_ do this to me? It was all my fault that Chase and I were even there that night, but Luna? I couldn't blame myself for her mistake. There was no possible way I could've changed the outcome if I could go back in time and replay that scene again. I thought she was my friend. Apparently not since she gossiped to the whole town that Chase was cheating. At my house. I could imagine the conversation now.

Luna: (walks into Tailor Shop) Hey Julius, guess what I found out? Chase is cheating on Maya.

Julius: (putting hand over mouth and acting all giddy like a girl) No way, no way.

Luna: Yeah way. You'd better tell the entire island that he was with Angela last night. (runs away to tell the next person she sees)

Julius: That I will do. (runs away to tell the next person he sees)

Okay, so maybe I'm overreacting a little. I know Luna wouldn't do that, but why would Chase tell anybody he was at my house last night? Luna might have accidentally let it slip to Julius, since he's technically her brother in law, but I thought I knew Julius well enough to know that all he talked about was the new "in" fashions. Maybe she told Gill, although it's hard to think Mr. High and Snooty would waste his time gossiping. Candace wasn't even a possibility.

At this random moment, Bo's words rang through my head again. "_He's obviously head over heels in love."_ Chase was head over heels in love with Maya, and there was nothing I could do about it, no matter how much it hurt.

* * *

A/N: If you have any ideas for the next chapter(s), review and tell me because my mind is running low on ideas. Even you have no ideas, review anyways! :)

Haha, I think the title's pretty funny. I was trying to say that Angela is actually a pretty strong person on the inside and her period is what's making her so moody. That's why she's been crying all the time during these past few chapters. Don't think you're stupid if you didn't get that, I'm just not the best writer. :P


	4. A Little Too Not Over You

Author's note: Sorry it took a little longer to update than usual. My cousins came to visit for a while, giving me little to no time to update. The other thing keeping me was a common disliking to almost everybody out there. One compound word, two syllables, eight letters, homework. I was trying to decide whether to name this chapter A Little Too Not Over You by David Archuleta or Thinking of You by Katy Perry. I decided I might use Thinking of You for a later chapter, and A Little Too Not Over You had a little more of the same ideas in it so... (sorry pEaCe-LoVe-hArRyPoTtEr [Did I spell it right this time?]. I know I told you Thinking of You, but I changed my mind again). Chase's POV

Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own Harvest Moon or any of the songs used.

* * *

I twisted my friendship bracelet awkwardly as I walked home. The kind of color-washed knots were still there after all these years. I never took it off. It was a part of me the same way the girl who had made it for me was. I couldn't bear the idea of ever separating from neither it nor her.

I slowed down on the path between the two houses I visited most frequently- Angela's and my own. If I knew anything, it was that I would be dead the moment I was within spitting distance of Maya, my wife. And because I wasn't too fond of the idea of dying, much less being murdered by someone I love, I tried to slow down the pace a tiny bit more. Maybe Maya would still be at work…oh, for the love of oranges. That means I had to work today, too. Darn it! Why had I let Maya talk me into having our wedding on a Friday? You were never supposed to work the day after your wedding, at least not for people whose work places were closed on Sundays as ours was. Now Jake and Colleen would surely fire me.

The path before me came to a halt and curved in the direction of the oh so familiar little house. I sighed while walking through the door, secretly hoping that Maya wasn't home. When I heard no noise at my entry, I relaxed a bit, but I still had a nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach. Maybe making her chocolate fondue would help the situation. After all, that was what I had given her while we were dating. Not too hard to make, just some cocoa, bread, and milk cooked in a pot. She loved the heck out of the stuff. Then again, what did I make that she didn't love the heck out of?

I mindlessly searched the fridge for the three ingredients. Only moments later, I threw them in the pot, stirring at the mixture every few minutes. Worrying seemed to melt at a direct proportion to the cocoa. Cooking was my place. The only place I felt I belonged. And when Angela was here, well all the more so. But I wasn't cooking for Angela. Or even with her. I was cooking for the sole reason of Maya. And because I didn't want to die.

It was quickly done, the cocoa melted to a deep chocolate brown. The same color as Angela's eyes. I quickly shook the thought from my head. _Maya_. I had to keep reminding myself the same thing over and over again: _This is for Maya!_ But I couldn't stop the memory from flooding into my brain.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The chocolate eyes seemed to burn a hole in me, or at least made me self-conscious if nothing else. "Well? Are you going to answer me?" the owner of those eyes asked me.

"Oh, sorry. I was zoning out. What did you say?" I asked her. I suddenly became aware of the stain on my worn-out jeans. I should've washed them.

"I know who you're thinking about," she said matter-of-factly. I panicked. How could she know that I liked her? Was I that bad at being discreet?

"Oh yeah?" I asked, raising what I hoped looked like a cynical eyebrow.

"It's Sandra Smith, isn't it?" she asked, getting a little too excited. And who exactly was that? At least she wasn't suspicious of my crush on her. But then again… it would be a great relief to get that out of the way.

"Who is that?"

"She's that blonde girl who sits beside me in science. I just thought, well, you always seem to stare at her.." she rambled. She looked cute going nowhere besides in verbal circles.

"No, I'm pretty sure I've never heard of her, Angela. Are you sure you know what you're talking about?"

"Well, actually… I'm not too sure about anything anymore. Maybe I was just being stupid."

"Yeah, that sounds in character for you," I laughed.

She punched my arm playfully while adding a, "Hey!" to the conversation.

~*~*~*~*~*~

I was pulled back to reality with a sharp pain on the side of my thumb. "Ow!" I yelped, dropping the fondue, which was the cause of the burn, onto the ground. I refrained from cussing out loud. Well there just went my afternoon, my chance of not dying, and not to mention my finger. I checked the clock on the wall; it was only 6:00. I still had time to make some more fondue, right? I mean Maya would be working at the bar until midnight anyways, so I probably had enough time. Probably.

I sighed and ran the cool running water over my finger. After the sting went away, I grabbed a towel to clean up the mess. The fondue, luckily, didn't stain the floor after I was done cleaning it. The feeling of déjà vu strangely filled me as I pulled out the ingredients again. The chocolate brown plunged me into a memory once again.

~*~*~*~*~*~

I turned around to see them holding hands. It sickened me. Of course I knew why, but I wasn't expecting to feel that bad. What made him better than me? Why couldn't I be the one holding Angela's hands, staring into her deep, brown eyes? Why did she have to be staring into his emerald green eyes and not my violet ones? Why did everything always turn out bad for me?

"So…," I said, glancing around awkwardly. One look at the scene and a passer-by could know I was not welcome in this situation. I was the third wheel between Angela and Tyler.

"Yo, dude!" the green-eyed boy said. His brown hair was messy, yet neat at the same time. Why couldn't my hair work like that? Why did I always need bobby pins in order to make it look even somewhat presentable? "Do you mind?" he asked. Of course I minded. I was on my own while two lovebirds- one of them being my best friend and also my crush- held hands right in front of me. How I could just let her go out with him… I'll never understand what restrained me from beating him up.

"Oh… I'll just be going then," I said while getting up from the bench, clenching my teeth. The park was full of happiness: little kids swinging and sliding, teenagers laughing their heads off, adults being the happiest adults could get. All of that going on around me while I was feeling the most jealous I had ever felt in my life.

"Wait, Chase!" Angela called. "You don't have to go. Tyler's just being… Tyler," she said while the boy looked away. How stupid. I bet he took that as a compliment.

"No, it's okay. I wouldn't want to ruin your 'fun'," I said. A grimace adorned my face as I said this, knowing that I very well didn't want to leave those two alone together.

"Chase, come back!" she yelled. But I was already gone.

~*~*~*~*~*~

I poured the fondue into a bowl, more careful this time not to drop it or burn myself. Finding myself more accident-prone than usual, I carefully placed it on the table, then sat down in a chair at the table. I wiped a bead of sweat from my forehead, smearing the wetness on my apron.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Chase, you're sweating," Angela said. I realized it was true. I wiped the bead of sweat from my forehead, smearing the wetness on my pants.

"Generally, unfit guys do sweat during PE," I said. Of course, she could've jogged all the way around without me even reaching the half way mark, but lucky for me, Angela was a good friend and managed to not run too far ahead of me.

"You're not unfit, just not as fast as me," she said, slowing down even more.

"I don't think I ever will be. You don't have to wait for me, you know. You can go hang out with those girls over there," I said pointing in a random direction. There were a bunch of people playing basketball. And yes, girls were included.

"But those girls aren't my friends," she said, glancing for a second in that direction. "You're my friend."

"I know that, but you must have other friends. You're better off hanging out with somebody else for once in a while," I begged. I couldn't be her only friend.

It was about a few months before Angela and Tyler had began going out. If I had known that then, I wouldn't have been suggesting that she hang out with other people.

"No, you're my best friend. And I promise I won't cross the finish line with you too far behind," she said. Oh _that_ was reassuring. My mind meant it sarcastically, but an odd sense of security flowed through my veins at that very moment. "But if you want me to speed up, I can. No promising I won't wait for you, though!" And her pace sped up a bit. "Not too far behind!" she reminded me. "A promise is a promise!" and she crossed the finish line.

~*~*~*~*~*~

I couldn't believe I still remembered all that. It was a common day, nothing special about it. Yet I still remembered all the details perfectly. Weren't memories supposed to be forgotten after a while? Why was Angela so unforgettable? What was wrong with my brain? What was wrong with my heart?

Suddenly the door slammed open to admit Maya entrance. I cringed away from the sound. "Chase!" she screamed. "Why weren't you at work today?!"

Her icy blue eyes chilled me. They were so different compared to Angela's warm and inviting eyes. It was like they would let you do whatever you wanted, but trusted you not to go berserk and take advantage of her. Maya's, however, told you pinpoint directions on what to do and trusted noone. Everything about the two girls was different. For example: Angela wore the most comfortable clothes she could find, not caring at all what she looked like. Maya, on the other hand, only wore her puffy, pink/blue dress to be pleasing to the eye.

"What are you doing back so early?" I questioned her right back. One look at the clock and it was only 8:00.

"I asked my mom and dad if I could get off early. They knew what it was like to be young and newly married, so they gave me the rest of the night off and even excused you for not coming at all today," she responded. "But don't expect to be paid for the day."

"Don't worry, I wasn't expecting to," I said, looking into the chocolate mixture on the table. She seemed to follow my gaze.

"What's that?" she asked me.

"I made some fondue for you…" I said, getting up from the table and passing the substance to her. The sheepish smile on my face faded when she just put it back on the table.

"Chase, I don't care about fondue right now," she said. The gleam in her eyes was what threw me off guard. I took it to be anger, but actually it was something much different.

"I was just answering your question. Both of them. Why I wasn't at work and what that was," I said.

"I don't even care why you weren't at work. You promised me a wedding night and since I've waited so long, I want one heck of one," she said, taking my hand and leading me toward the bedroom.

I pried my hand free and said, "Um… I'm not sure I'm up for it." It was meant to be said nonchalantly, but I'm pretty sure some of my nervousness leaked into the sentence.

"Oh come on, Chase. Don't you love me?" she asked.

"Of course. I'm head over heels for you." She grabbed my hand again and pulled me into the bedroom. The door shut.

While in the bed with Maya, all I could think about was how I had lied. Lied to the three people I cared about most at the moment: Angela, Maya, and myself. Both Angela and I when I had told her I had the largest crush on her. I was lying and I didn't even know it. Because while my feelings toward Angela did change after we moved here, they were still basically they same. Just stronger after being two months without her.

I had lied to Maya when I told her that I was head over heels for her. That may not be a lie, but it wasn't fully the truth. Because if I was head over heels for Maya, then I was heels over head for Angela. My relationship with Maya made sense. Everybody expected that I would marry her when I moved here. I mean we worked at the same place, had the same interests, and the same dreams. It would make sense that we would end up together. But while the relationship between the both of us has remained steady, the relationship between both Angela and I was aimless and out of control. At the moment I was hanging upside-down. How could I have not seen it before? Had I seriously thought I had moved on?

The only thing that Angela and I both shared was the past. Was that really enough to keep a strong relationship? It must have been enough for me because obviously I was in the bed with Maya, my mind on Angela the whole time.

* * *

Author's Note: Which leads us to the next song in Chase's POV: Heels Over Head by Boys Like Girls. You're welcome to guess what happens next in the story by listening to that song. I don't think it'll be too long until the next chapter comes out, considering spring break and all. Also I'm pretty stoked to see how my next idea turns out.

Sorry to all you guys that reviewed and said that Maya should explode. I know this probably isn't what you had in mind, but I don't like having bad guys in my story. Just different. I believe that almost everything someone does has a justafiable. Notice the underlined word almost.

Attention! Anybody who wouldn't want to know what happens next, don't read the rest of this paragraph (probably nobody, but just in case). Thanks to Blissful Skyes for the winning idea. I'm going to use that for the next chapter :D. Not exactly like that, but I think she'll end up calling him sometime that night lol. I might also include Strawberry Bijou's idea of Angela going to talk to Luna about her gossiping.

As always, review. You're more than welcome to tell me some more ideas. :) . If you want to you can criticize or talk nonsense (you know who you are) again, that's perfectly fine with me. I forced a few people to criticize... hehe. In the next few chapters, I'm going to be try to fix that problem. Maybe. I had a song already picked out for the next chapter, but that might just change...


	5. Big Girls Don't Cry

A/N: Hello all. Sorry for waiting so long to update. I know I said I was super excited about this chapter, and I was, but I needed to put the basic stepping stones in place before anything else could happen. With the help of a friend *coughcoughkcought*, those stones are now pretty much in place and I hope to be getting out with chapters quickly.

I won't pretend to be the best writer in the world, that my stories are worth anything more than a fanfiction account, or that I offer super quick updates, but I at least hope they entertain some people. They give me something to do, at least. And I know I have no experience in love because of my age (or should I say lack of it?), but I really do appreciate all the reviewers, people who added my story in their list of favorites and put this story on story alerts. Even if you just read it, give yourself a pat on the back. I love you all! Angela's POV

Disclaimer: I still don't own Harvest Moon or any of the songs used in this story.

* * *

_Ring..._

_Ring..._

_Ring..._

The phone's ringing put some odd, yet comforting rhythm and rhyme directly into my ear. It calmed me down quite a bit. The soothing ringing continued until I thought I would be referred to the annoying and mechanical voice of the answering machine. Instead he picked up.

"Hello?" he asked with his voice in deep gasps. I could hear more panting in the background.

"Oh, Chase, sorry! Did I reach you at a bad time?" I asked the phone. The ringing had stopped, which made me a little peeved, but I was glad to hear Chase's voice all the same.

"No, it's alright," he said, but the background told a different story.

"Chase! Hang up the phone!" the background's high-pitched voice told me. _Maya_.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" I frantically said. Of course, it was a bad time. It was the worst of times. I checked the clock on the wall. 9:30. What was Maya doing back from work so early?

"Who is it?" Maya asked.

"No, Angela, don't hang up the phone! What did you want to tell me?" he asked. He must've known he would get in trouble saying my name. He could've just as easily said, 'No! Don't hang up the phone!'. Maybe he just wanted to make Maya jealous or what not.

"Angela! That brat? What does she want, Chase?" Maya asked.

"No, it's really nothing. Just me being stupid again. It doesn't matter anymore," I said and hung up for lack of something better to do. If there were a door between us, I would've slammed it. That would've made me feel better, anyways. Slamming doors were a specialty of mine.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The loud bang from the door seemed to echo throughout the hall. "No! Go away!" I screamed to the person who was actually in the hall and would have proof that the door was truly that loud.

"Oh, come on? Can't we talk about this?" Chase asked.

"Don't you think you had enough time to tell me all about it? I wouldn't have minded all that much if you would've told me, but instead I had to find out from that bragging, useless, bit-"

"Don't even go there," he said sternly. I usually didn't cuss, but I was furious. I saved the cussing for moments like these when I could feel steam coming out of my ears. Chase always restrained me though.

"You could've at least told me she was your first. Or were you not a virgin before her?" I asked loudly. "I thought we were best friends. I would've told you if I were laid by some random person I hardly knew. It's not even like you were dating or anything. Or were you holding that back from me too?"

"No, it's not like that and you know it."

"No, I don't know it, so why don't you tell me?" I asked, pretty sure my chocolate eyes looked more amber now with flames boiling inside them.

He took a deep breath as if gathering all his courage and muttered out, "I was trying to make a girl jealous."

"Okay, first of all, you do _not _get a girl jealous that way. If you try to get another girl jealous again in that way, I will beat the living shi-"

"Crap," he suggested.

"That too! And don't underestimate me. I can and will hunt you down."

"Don't worry. I know," he said as if bored of the conversation already.

"And don't take that kind of attitude about it, either! This is not something to just be bored about. That poor girl. She could be pregnant!"

"Um, first of all, I used protection. Secondly, since when is she 'that poor girl'? You were just calling her names?"

"Yes, but no girl deserves that," I said.

"Are you saying no girl deserves me?"

"No! That's not it at all. You're a great guy and any girl would be lucky to have you. What I was saying is that no girl deserves to be pregnant at such a young age."

"So now any girl would be lucky to have me, huh?" he asked. I had to change the subject.

"It was Sandra Smith wasn't it? The girl you were trying to make jealous? I know you said you didn't like her before, but I can't help but notice you glancing on our side of the room all the time," I sputtered. The door squeaked a little as I opened it and watched him fall to the floor as if he had been leaning on it only seconds earlier. I couldn't help but laugh. And in my angry state, it probably sounded like an evil-I'm-plotting-revenge-on-the-world laugh.

He quickly got up and brushed himself off. "Sure, we'll go with that."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Looking back on that memory, I was angry as hell. Was it that I had to hear it from unreliable sources only to find it true? Or was it that I wanted to be his first? There was no way to tell at the time, but my guess right now was both. And now I couldn't even be his second, either. The first time had stung a little, but this time hurt so much more.

Suddenly it really didn't matter anymore that the whole town was talking about Chase and I. The whole point of calling him had been pointless. The whole point in being in this town at all was pointless.

Why was I even staying here? Why did I even come here? Wasn't it for Chase? Now he certainly didn't need me. The whole town was talking about me and not in the good way. All eligible bachelors had been married and my reason for staying here was pathetic. Of course, I would miss my animals, but Renee would take good care of them for me. I had nothing to worry about. The only people who would miss me were Chase and Luna. And I would say goodbye to Luna. Chase's goodbye would be much too painful. I was a wimp and I wouldn't be able to do it without crying.

I began throwing my clothes into a suitcase, not caring about the furniture left behind. I could always buy more with my savings. Sell the farm for cheap, furniture included. Not too hard if it was way under priced. After all, I got the farm free anyways. I wouldn't lose money because the only thing I paid for was the furnishings. The price should even out.

There were way too many tears shed here on this stupid island. I was stuck on the past, following Chase around everywhere. I needed to get my own life. And I couldn't do that while I was here.

I latched the suitcase closed and left it on the bed. No matter what, I couldn't cry. I wouldn't let myself. It was just a new stage of my life, nothing to be sad about. Leaving my past behind was a sacrifice I needed to make for a better future. It wasn't a question of would I do it, but could I do it. And the challenge was too big for me to refuse.

The scenery buzzed past me. Except for Chase's house, which stayed very still for a long time. I had stopped running to stare at his house. I would miss him. Even if he was sleeping with Maya in there, that house had some good memories.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Oh, no you didn't!" I said playfully. My usual bole-colored hair had bits of white intertwined in it after interacting with a whole bag of flower. Chase, who had dumped the bag over my head, had forced the interaction between the two.

"What are you going to do about it?" he asked. He must not have realized we were making _caramel_cookies where the ingredient _caramel_was involved. The brown sticky substance slowly oozed its way from the jar, aimed straight for his messy peach hair, but by that time he had moved away and the caramel fell on the floor.

"Oh no, my nice clean floor," he said, smirking. The sarcasm was not at all surprising.

"Yeah, that's what I'll do. I'll mess up your house. You know, un-alphabetize your book shelves, replace the inhabitants of your fridge with rotten ones, put different ingredients in your recipes…"

"You wouldn't," he said menacingly, yet at the same time, he was laughing uncontrollably.

"Just try me," I said, smirking back at him. His violet eyes danced in expectation as he grabbed the caramel jar away from me and dished it into my already gross hair with a spoon.

"No! You have betrayed me, caramel! Why must you listen to him and not me?" I cried melodramatically. "You foods must love Chase. Honestly, he's a chef and he never gets fat! Why can't you love me like that? He hardly ever exercises!" I cried falling to my knees like the harmless substance had wounded me.

Chase rolled his eyes, the gleam still there, making them look more like two big, blinking amethysts. "Mental note: no more sugar for Angela," he said aloud.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" I asked him.

"Just that someone needs to stop with the sugar. It's starting to scare me…"

"Hey, what did you expect? You poured a whole jar of sugary brown stuff at my head and expected me not to be hyper? You brought this upon yourself," I chided.

"Since when did food love me? Every time I eat I always think, 'it needs more salt, it needs more pepper, it needs a dash of paprika' or something along those lines. I don't know about you, but to me that doesn't qualify as food loving me."

"It's liked you ever since you could make delicious stuff from it. The food I cook always ends up tasting like fish, even when I'm making something else. It gets so annoying!" I said.

"Have you ever let Toby in your house?" he asked.

"Yes…" I said cautiously.

"There's your reason," he said with a small smile on his face.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Now it was vice versa. Instead of Toby coming to my house, I would be asking admittance into his.

_Thump._

_Thump._

_Thump._

My knuckles rapped the door making a hollow sound. It felt weird standing in the dark, especially in front of somebody else's house. The farmers' motto '_Early to bed, early to rise_' prevented me from just this kind of thing. But no longer would I be a farmer. At least, not in this town. I didn't think the rule applied to me anymore.

The door opened a sliver while a laid-back voice said, "Why, hello, Angela!"

"Hi, Toby," I said, giving a little curtsy. "Is Renee home? Well, of course she's home, I mean where else would she be? Wait- no, that's not what I mean. I mean I need to talk to Renee, but all this polite stuff and everything. I hope I wasn't interrupting anything. It's not like that would be the first time tonight- and I'm going to shut up now."

"Of course. Renee's just around the corner preparing a dish of some kind. I sure hope it's fish," he said. The door closed for a minute then opened all the way to reveal the silver haired, squinty eyed boy with some kind of hat almost attached to his back.

I walked inside to see a house not at all like I expected it to be. I had imagined fish on every square inch of wall, yoga mats on the floor, and to top it all off a few birds and pets for Renee's pleasure. But the house was actually warm and inviting; not at all like the mental image I had concocted. Well, besides the fishy smell.

"Just around the corner," Toby reminded me and pointed a finger in the right direction.

"Thanks," I said sheepishly and ran that way. I reached the kitchen to see Renee cooking something. From the smell of it, Toby had gotten his wish of fish for the meal. But then again, the whole house smelled like fish so I could've been easily wrong.

"Hi, Angela. What brings you here so late?" Renee asked while wiping her hands on a dish cloth.

"Well, I was wondering if you could start taking care of my animals tomorrow. I need to go somewhere," I said, scratching the back of my head.

"Sure, how long will you be vacationing?" she asked.

"I'm thinking permanently," I said.

"Oh. What's wrong? Why are you leaving?" she asked.

"Personal reasons," I said uncomfortably. I couldn't let her know that I had fallen for a married man. Although she probably knew from the gossip around here. People in small towns knew every little tid bit of gossip about each other.

"Oh, I see. It's about Chase isn't it?" she asked, confirming my suspicions.

"No! He wasn't cheating on Maya for me! Honestly, what kind of idiot do you think he is? What kind of man would dump a girl like Maya for _me_?" I said. I hadn't meant it to be that loud, but it came out as a yell.

"Okay, calm down, Angela. I wasn't accusing him of anything. We all know he loves Maya very much. Forget the question, okay? So how much do you want for the animals?"

"Oh, no. I don't want any money. I just want them in good hands. And I know you and you're parents will have that kind of care they need. The only thing you really need to remember is that Caroline has sensitive teeth, so you can't give her the same kind of fodder you give the other animals. She needs some high class food called 'Laminecint'. I know it sounds really weird, but could you just take the money you were going to give me and invest it towards her?" I asked, choking back the sadness from finding refuge in my voice. It would do perfectly fine if it just stayed in my heart.

"Of course," she said politely. "Are you leaving tonight? I don't think Pascal will want to be boating this late at night."

"No. I have a few good byes to say in the morning, but I just wanted to let you know that as of tomorrow, you are the owner of all my livestock."

Just then, Toby walked in. "Yum. It smells like fish," he said. I stared at him in disbelief. It always smelled like fish. Or at least he did.

"Well, I'd better go. It's getting late and I wouldn't want to hold you guys back from your meal. I'll let you take them tomorrow, Renee. Bye, guys."

"Bye," they both called out as if in perfect synchronization.

I ran outside into the star-filled sky and didn't stop this time to look at Chase's house. My animals were already safe and cozy in the barn, so the only thing left that I could do that night was sleep. I pulled the covers up to my shoulders and snuggled in closer to the blankets. With nothing to do, I had to keep reminding myself of the promise I made myself. I always kept my promises. I couldn't break one as simple as this. Luckily, I wasn't used to staying up this late and quickly fell asleep for what could possibly be the last time on this island.

* * *

A/N: Okay everybody. That's it for tonight. It's storming like crazy and I run a great risk of having my computer struck by lightning, but I do it all for you guys. I hope you guys like it!

Sorry to everybody (especially BellaLacey because she seems really excited about it) who read that my next chapter would be named after the Boys Like Girls song Heels Over Head. I feel like such a liar :( . But Angela hasn't actually left yet and I have something major happen on the boat, so I'll try to squeeze in another chapter. But I promise to continue with that idea two chapters from now. Hope you can wait that long.

Okay, if you've read all the author's notes so far, you should know what I'm about to say. Review. And I do mean it. Even if you don't like it and think it's a story better deleted than posted, write that. I'm always looking for ways to improve since there is so much room for it. I just need to know what direction. You point up, down, left, right, forward, backward, and I'll try to improve that way. So I hate to reiterate myself so much, but please do review.


	6. About You Now

A/N: You cannot imagine how extremely sorry I am for taking so long to update. I wrote one version of this chapter, hated it, rewrote it, and this is what it ended up being. And after I finished writing it, I realized that it was supposed to be a Sunday which ruined my whole plan. So lets just pretend this is a special Sunday that requires the Sundae Inn to be open. How stupid is it that the _Sundae_ Inn isn't opened on _Sundays_. It makes no sense to me. I just don't want to rewrite it _again _and you know I'd take forever to do so. I don't want to keep my readers waiting that much longer. So in advance, sorry guys! Chase's POV

Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon, the characters, the places, or any of the songs used in this story. Basically, in case I've missed anything, I own nothing but the plot.

* * *

Had it been this hard for Christopher Columbus when he discovered America? He had a place to go back to, Spain, but he had left to go to the US at Spain's expense, coming back to Spain after naming some crude islands (Yes, I'm talking about the Virgin Islands. Honestly, who would name an island Virgin Gorda? It means fat virgin, after all! Got something on your mind you're not telling us about, buddy?). Had it been this hard for him to decide to go back to Spain?

I could be considered an explorer, right? Well, maybe a little along the lines of Dora and not Christopher, but none the less, they're both annoying and Spanish-speaking so it's basically the same.

"Stand up everybody, stand up!" Goddess, I would kill myself if I were Dora. I'd just end up strangling that monkey dude first. Then maybe I'd proceed to murder the kids watching who aren't listening to my every command. Then both the explorers in question would be violent.

But, back to the subject. Even if I'm not an explorer like Calvin, I moved out of the country regardless. So, I consider myself an explorer. And, as I'm imagining it would've been for the dead America founder, this decision was a lot tougher than expected. Was history the way to go? Or was it better to learn from your mistakes and not repeat them?

I'm sure most people would say the second choice. It's the obvious reasoning that most parents teach their children. But, as I am not Dora, this rule does not apply to me. My parents had never taught me that rule before dying when I was a little over seven years old. They were the type of parents who would rather have fun and live in the moment rather than worry about the future. Maybe that's one reason they died. And maybe that's one reason I don't like to be that fun-loving. Because I know how it will turn out in the end if I follow their footsteps.

Now, you may be asking what Columbus has to do with me. Well, his decision to go back to Spain could in fact be symbolic to the decision I am making at this very moment. Should I stay with Maya and risk never telling Angela how I feel about her, that I love her? That I _still_ love her?

While you're in the question-asking mood, you might even be asking how I got to the subject of Christopher Columbus in the first place. Maybe it was the fact that the mayor had ordered a dish so disgusting, it must've been fed to the Native Americans as torture devices by Christopher Columbus and his crew. Maybe it was the Spanish sounding song Yolanda was humming while slicing the heck out of our shipment of fresh vegetables. Then again, maybe it was being able to hear Hamilton saying what a wonderful contribution Calvin was to the island after making all these discoveries about some kind of seedling. Who knows, it could even be a mixture of the three.

The combined forces of the oven and the sun pounded on my skin as if it was still summer. For such a normally cool season, it was blazing hot. It must have been a little after noon for the sun to be so high in the sky, the heat hugging me as if it had no one else to hug. The Sundae Inn was packed with people, people who all wanted food. And I, I and Yolanda, we were the unfortunate people who had to serve them.

"Order up!" I shouted after wiping a bead of sweat from my brow, placing the torture device on the counter for Maya to deliver to Hamilton. Before she even had time to come and talk, I turned around and started cooking the next dish, which just happened to be Bamboo en Papilotte. Great, more use of the oven to make me go into hyperthermia. And here I thought the townspeople were starting to like me. Well, like me enough to not kill me at least.

"Chase, I need to tell you something," came a voice from the kitchen's entryway.

"Not now, Maya," I said a little roughly. It's not that I didn't want to talk to her per se; it's just that I always believed the kitchen was a work place. A place where miracles could happen if you were patient enough. A place where all hell would break loose at the simplest of errors. A place where I could just think and not have to say anything to anybody.

"Do I sound like a Maya to you?" the voice asked, sounding like whining and anger were put in a blender together. I slowly turned around to see a short, purple-haired girl with her hands on her hips.

I don't know why I get aggravated so easily, but just seeing somebody in the kitchen who wasn't supposed to be there, let's just say it was not a pleasant feeling. The heat in the kitchen combined with the heat in my head, even worse of a feeling. Maybe it was just that my personality was sort of contradictable. The optimism thing just does not cut it for me. If you can't have more than one emotion, you are not an interesting person. And I'm not afraid to voice my opinions either. If you get me angry, you'll know that you have.

"You know, you had just the right amount of whininess in your voice to be the actual Maya. I commend you for that much at the very least," I said with the usual smirk on my face.

Suddenly, her eyes veered off to the left as if looking at someone behind me. My heart started thumping wildly at the possibilities it held. "She's standing right behind me, isn't she?" I asked. Luna slowly nodded her head in agreement, purple pigtails bobbing up and down.

I turned around, preparing to duck just in case Maya was holding anything that could 'slip' from her hands and somehow end up hitting me in the face. But, to my surprise, Maya was on the other side of the room, striking up a conversation with the Inn's next customer.

"Okay, that was really _not _funny. You need to get out of my kitchen before I kick you out," I said.

"No, no. You're right," she said.

"When am I not?" I asked under my breath.

"It was hilarious! You should've seen the look on your face! Priceless!" she said, laughing so hard I thought she would begin crying. Suddenly all laughter stopped as her eyes veered to the right this time. Then it was followed by a finger pointing in the same direction.

"Nice try, but there's no way I'm falling for that again," I said. "You hate me just as much as your husband does, don't you?"

"Chase, did I just hear you call this _your_ kitchen?" asked a booming voice from behind me. I gulped and slowly turned around to see Yolanda staring at me. If I was as short as Luna, I probably would've thought her menacing and scary too. Heck, if I was 7ft tall I would still think her as menacing and scary. But I'm used to her by now.

"I just want to get this pest out of here before anything disastrous happens," I said.

"I better not hear that happen again. You are just an apprentice," she said. Luckily, the Inn was too busy for her to take it any farther.

"Okay, I'm going to forget you calling me a pest because that may even be funnier than the first time," she said, laughing hysterically again.

"Why are you even here?" I asked after the laughter had died down almost completely. She had said she wanted to tell me something, right? Well the only thing she had told me so far was that I was hilarious when frightened. Yes, very important matters to disturb me with while I'm in the kitchen.

"I have… a message to deliver. It's from Angela," she said, the laughter totally gone from her voice and replaced by what seemed like sadness.

My mind went scrambling around rapidly at just the mention of Angela's name. I was really pathetic, wan't I? After all this time, I even remembered when we first met.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Honey, I'm so sorry," said a woman at the front desk. "But all the kids in here know what you're going through. You will feel so much better if you make some friends, I promise." In all honesty, that woman scared me. I wished my parents could've had siblings so I could live with them instead of staying in this run-down orphanage."Follow me. I'll show you around to the other children," the lady said, stepping out from behind the counter and waving for me to follow. Although her face held a small smile, it wasn't very welcoming. "Right around this corner, dear," she said, motioning for me to go first.

I sighed and turned the corner to see a room full of joyful kids. They were all playing a game. It must've been duck, duck, goose because there were only two people running around. The rest, maybe ten of them, were sitting in a circle on the floor. There was a woman sitting in a rocking chair in the far corner, watching happily as everybody was having fun. There was a sharp pang in my heart. Everybody was having fun except for me. She stood up as soon as she saw me enter and the children all stopped playing. Not caring what people thought of me anymore, I silently stalked into the room. The front desk lady followed closely behind.

"Everybody, this is Chase. Let's give him a hardy Little Treasures Orphanage welcome!" she said.

If I had ever heard a pathetic excuse for a welcome, it was that one. There were mumbled "Hello's," jumbled "Hi's," a few "Welcome's," but only one "Hey, Chase."

The owner of the voice sounded like... well, an angel.

"I'm going to leave you here with Mrs. Linda. If you have any problems, come and get me at the front desk." I nodded vigorously, not wanting to seem like a baby. Boys were supposed to be tough no matter what. "Make Chase feel welcome and introduce yourselves to him, kids," she said to the entire group.

After she left, the first person to come up and talk to me was a girl. She had short, brown hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a t-shirt with the orphanage's name on it and a pair of jeans. "Hey," she said, coming up to me. Right when she said that, all I could think was that she was the owner of the voice. The one who had sounded like an angel. It was... heavenly.

I had never been so self-conscious in my short seven year life. My tear-stained face was probably turning red. My sullen expression hadn't changed much over the past few weeks and I could fairly remember my parents telling me that if I rolled my eyes too much they would get stuck like that. I wondered if the same was true for expressions.

"My name is Angela," she said. I couldn't help it. I burst out laughing. Angel with an 'a' at the end. It fit her. Apparently you _couldn't_ be sad for too long. She looked at me like I was crazy.

"Are you by any chance an angel? My mom used to tell me about them," I said stupidly.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"Yolanda, I'm going to take my break now," I said, leading Luna to a far-off table where we could have a conversation without anybody else listening in on us.

"Fine, but you have to help clean up between five and six then," she shouted out the door.

I ignored Yolanda's shouts and turned to Luna. "What? What is it that you need to tell me? And it's from Angela you say?"

"Well, I wasn't supposed to tell you until after Pascal left, but I figured now would be as good a time as ever to tell you. Maybe we should wait a few minutes before I tell you…"

"What is it?" I asked impatiently. "What about Pascal?" I asked, my mind not being able to comprehend much in such a state, this state of thinking that something was wrong with Angela, that she was hurt. "Is she hurt? What did Pascal do to her?"

"No, he didn't hurt her exactly…" she said, trailing off.

"What did he do to her then? Oh no. Don't tell me he raped her!" I said, starting to get up from the seat.

"What? No! Sit back down!" she called. For some strange reason, I obeyed.

"What's wrong then? Just tell me already!"

"Well, she's leaving. She wanted me to tell you goodbye," she said slowly.

"Leaving where?" I asked, dumbfounded. So naïve was I that I couldn't even understand it when I heard Angela had left. Maybe I wasn't naïve at all, maybe I was just in love. It never even crossed my mind that Angela would move on her own accord, at her own pace. I always believed I wasn't good enough for her, but I never guessed she would leave me just like that, without even saying goodbye. And right after I had made up my mind that I really did love her.

"Leaving the island," Luna said simply. I didn't hear anybody after that, I just ran. Ran out the door, through town and onto the beach.

Being clumsy did not help me in the least. I tripped over a humongous clam just lying in the middle of the beach. In my defense, I could swear that clam was trying to stop me from getting to Angela. I mean seriously, if it weren't out to get me I wouldn't have landed on some stupid pointy seashell and cut the back of my leg open. Couldn't they have gotten beach clean up to pick up all the crap along the shore? But I just got up and kept running. I don't believe I've ever ran faster in my life. Just the thought of the pain made me run even faster.

The only sound was that of my heavy breathing and the whoosh of the ocean waves as I reached the dock. I watched as a boat a mile off-shore got smaller and smaller as it went even farther into the ocean. I didn't care that I could hardly breathe. I didn't care that the blood dripping down my leg had reached the ground and kept oozing from there. I didn't even care about my dignity as the wetness in my eyes found its way to my cheeks. All I could think at that moment was that Angela was gone.

"No!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, willing her to come back. This couldn't be happening. Not now. Not to me. Not again. I couldn't be losing another person I loved.

The sea breeze made me even more aware. Aware of the blood escaping my body in massive amounts, the small beads of sweat on my forehead, the tears trickling down my cheeks. But those were no comparison to the extreme pain in my heart. No comparison at all.

"This can't be happening!" I said, quieter because the limited oxygen in my lungs only allowed me so much volume. "She can't be gone," I said, my knees buckling under me. The effect was that I fell to the ground and onto the dock. "No, you can't be gone…" But she was.

* * *

I have so many apologies to do this week, its not even funny.

1. Sorry it took so long to update. If you didn't read the first Author's Note, I had to rewrite the chapter. Also, I was just lazy and wanted to play the game instead of write about it :P

2. Sorry if it takes a long time to update for the next chapter. I might not be able to get it out to you by next weekend. Next Friday is my birthday, so I doubt I'll have time to get it to you before then.

3. Sorry if you have no idea who Christopher Columbus is. I just needed a person for Chase to compare himself to because I love comparisons so much :)

4. Sorry if it's as bad as crap. If you think it truly is that bad, review and tell me that. I can take it. Even if you don't think it is that bad, review and tell me what you thought about it.

5. Sorry if it's extremely cheesy and stupid.

Okay, now that that's over with, onto the fun, suspenseful part :)

What did Angela tell Luna before she left? What is Chase going to do now that Angela's gone? What is the big thing that will happen on the boat? What about that cut on Chase's leg? How has Chase not heard the rumor yet? All this and more to be answered at a later time. Review and tell me what you think the answer to these questions are. I'd love to see how wild your imaginations are :)

Also, I have a question to ask you and I'm to lazy to create a poll. Do you think I should continue to write with these flashbacks? The main purpose of them for me is to give you a little extra something to read. But are they too much? Review and let me know. I love reviews :)


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